TOGETHER (US, 1976, James Broughton and Joel Singer)
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“Joel Singer proposed an experimental portrait of me using his special effects. In the finished product I was amazed to watch the two sides of my head slowly coming together in fluctuations of repulsion and attraction.” —James Broughton
In 1974, James Broughton was in the process of finishing his film TESTAMENT, which he intended to be his final work. That year, Joel Singer began auditing one of Broughton’s classes at the San Francisco Art Institute, having recently relocated to the city from his native Montreal to immerse himself in the avant-garde film scene. Broughton, upon meeting Singer, believed him to be the reincarnation or manifestation of “Hermy,” the “angel/muse” that visited him when he was three years old and prophesied his life as a poet. Thus began a 15-year-long love story and creative partnership between both artists.
In 1976, two years after their meeting, Singer proposed that Broughton be the subject of an experimental film portrait. The resulting film, TOGETHER, consists of two disparate images of Broughton’s head — captured by Singer on high-contrast, black-and-white, 16mm film — slowly conjoining from opposite sides of the screen via rapid frame-by-frame intercutting. This stroboscopic imagery is accompanied by Broughton’s recitation of his poem of the same name. The title TOGETHER thereby literalizes Singer bringing together two separate images of Broughton’s face, while denoting the moment in Broughton’s and Singer’s lives in which they would consistently work together until Broughton’s death.
TOGETHER echoes a number of structural films from the period, such as Paul Sharits’ T,O,U,C,H,I,N,G (1968) and Bette Gordon and James Benning’s I-94 (1974), both of which use frame-by-frame interpolation to create a “flicker” effect within a fixed frame. TOGETHER has a particular affinity with I-94 in that both films imbue this structural technique with a sense of lyricism and eroticism in order to comment on the relationship between two people. TOGETHER combines the stroboscopic imagery of Broughton’s amalgamating faces as photographed by Singer with his poem in voiceover, thereby elucidating the artists’ romantic and creative “togetherness.” Similarly, I-94 fuses Gordon’s and Benning’s flickering nude bodies underneath a highway overpass, accompanied by overlapping voiceovers in which they discuss their interior lives and challenges, thereby offering a dynamic portrait of their personal and creative partnership.
altogether wholly in toto in toto
in totally toto together altogether
together
—James Broughton, from the soundtrack for TOGETHER
TOGETHER was well-recieved when first released, screening and winning awards at the 1977 Sinking Creek Film & Video Festival, as well as the Kenyon Film Festival and Independent Filmmakers Exposition the same year. In 1979, TOGETHER traveled to the London Film Festival.
TOGETHER
(US, 1976)
Director: James Broughton and Joel Singer
Director of Photography: Joel Singer
Starring: James Broughton
- 3 minutes
- 16mm
- B&W
- Sound
Distribution Format/s: DSL/Downloadable 1080p .mp4 file on server
Published By: GME
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